


the one time lance stayed up past his bedtime

by ceta346



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, Fluff, Love Confession, M/M, and best bros, but like three years into the future, keith and lance are literally just the best of friends its great, lance and keith are like 20, this is tagged as general audiences but theres cussing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 08:22:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11551287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceta346/pseuds/ceta346
Summary: Lance followed his sleep schedule religiously.Or, he did. Until Keith messed it up.





	the one time lance stayed up past his bedtime

**Author's Note:**

> THIS WAS WRITTEN ON A WHIM, IT'S NOT EDITED, HAVE FUN KIDS

Time is hard to keep track of in space. With no sunrise or sunset, time becomes little more than a number on a clock. It was hard to know when to sleep sometimes, or how long it'd been since you _had_ slept. 

Lance tried to keep his routine normal. He was strict with himself about going to bed at a certain time every night. He was determined to stay healthy, knowing that he'd be of more use to the team well-rested.  And he didn't want to end up like Shiro, who rarely slept at all. Whenever the others questioned Lance's sleeping habits, he joked it off as beauty sleep. They left him alone after that, and Lance preferred it that way. He knew no one else kept a schedule like him. Pidge and Shiro rarely slept, Hunk was borderline narcoleptic. But Lance didn't want to be any more the subject of teasing than he already was.

Lance followed his sleep schedule religiously.

Or, he did. Until Keith messed it up.

One night, Lance found Keith on the training deck. He'd just heard noises, and like any good paladin, decided to check it out. He hadn't expected to walk into the small room overlooking the deck and see his buddy Keith, on the ground, narrowly avoiding getting the snot kicked out of him by a Gladiator.

"Holy crow," Lance breathed, rushing over to the mic. He was about to vocally stop the fight when he glanced up again, and stopped. Keith was breathing hard, holding his bayard in one hand while blocking the Gladiator's unstopping attacks. Then he landed a hit on the machine. Dodged, and managed another. Keith ducked, and swept the Gladiator's feet from under it. The robot clattered to the floor, Keith standing above it. His bayard retracted into its smaller form. He said something. Lance could read his lips from where he was.

"End training sequence."

The red light in the robot's head dimmed, and the floor opened to dispose of the incapacitated opponent. Keith tipped his head back, and caught his breath.

Lance found that Keith wasn't the only one in need of a breather.

In only seconds, Keith had taken out that Gladiator. After it had given him a serious beatdown too, from what Lance had seen. It had looked bad enough for Lance to almost end the fight himself, anyway. But Keith apparently had high pain tolerance. Lance couldn't help himself. He pushed down on the comm button and leaned into the mic.

"What level was that, mullet?"

Keith looked over in surprise, narrowing his eyes. It was difficult to see through the glass from his side. Keith scooted over to the wall, where his helmet had been carelessly discarded. He fit it over his head and spoke. "Lance?" He asked like it wasn't obvious. Lance informed him it was.

"How-how long have you been watching?" Keith questioned, turning to face away from him.

"Not long," Lance assured. "Enough to see you kick the Gladiator's butt though." Keith made a thoughtful sound.

"Thirty," he replied.

Lance tilted his head. "Uh...sorry?"

"You asked what level it was," clarified Keith. "It was level thirty." Lance let out a slow whistle.

"Pretty impressive," he said slowly, tongue in a cheek. Of course, he'd seen Keith perform cooler feats of action. But that didn't mean it wasn't still awesome. Lance rarely got to see his friend in one-on-one combat. He was usually too busy taking down enemies to pay attention.

Keith let out a grunt. Lance saw him bend over to touch his shin gently.

"Y'Alright?" Lance asked over the mic. He wished he could get a closer look at Keith from where he was.

"Fine," Keith grunted. "The Gladiator just got a lucky hit in. I'll be fine."

Lance felt his eyes narrow. In the three years they'd all been together in space, Lance had gotten pretty good at reading his fellow teammates. He had to be. It was part of his job description as the blue paladin. And he was pretty sure that right now, Keith was masking how much pain he was really in. Lance rolled his eyes. Typical Keith. 

"Stay put, stupid," he ordered. "I'll be right down to check you out."

"I don't-" Keith started to protest, but Lance cut him off. 

"Upbupbupbup! Don't wanna hear it. I'll be down in a tick to check you out. No buts." Keith let out a resigning sigh and sat his sorry butt down on the floor where it belonged. Lance headed down to see him.

In the years they'd been on Team Voltron, Lance thought that his relationship with Keith had undergone the most change. When they'd first started out, he couldn't stand the guy. Keith had the annoying tendency to think about himself first- a habit born from all the years he spent self-reliant with virtually no family. To Lance, who'd grown up in a large family where thinking of others was necessary to avoid Death By Sibling, it was really stupid, and he wasn't afraid to call Keith out about it. But after being passed the mantle of Black Paladin for a while, things had changed. Keith's lone wolf attitude was replaced with more team spirit. Lance guessed that when Shiro went M.I.A and everything went to shit, that, ironically, was when things had stopped going south for them. Instead, Keith had chosen to trust Lance with his Lion. It was probably the most important burden Lance had ever been trusted with.

And just like that, they clicked. Keith opened up to him more, glad to have someone he could vent to. Lance did the same. They'd had too many late-night talks to count. Just like in Voltron, Lance appeared to have become Keith's right hand man. When there was a tough mission, and Keith needed someone he could rely on, he chose Lance. The first few times had come as a surprise, but now when Keith said, "Lance, you're with me," it was just normal. It had occured to Lance shortly after their first solo mission together that they complimented each other in battle almost perfectly.

Those few short weeks of Shiro's absence had brought him and Keith so dramatically closer that if he had the opportunity to stop Shiro from ever going missing, Lance would have a reason to actually hesitate. But he couldn't change the past.

Lance shook all of those what-ifs out of his head. He and Keith were as tight as he and Hunk. That was how it was, and how it would hopefully stay. As unbelievable as it could be sometimes.

Lance entered the training deck from ground level after what seemed like forever. Keith had thankfully stayed put, even if he was pouting like an angry toddler about it. Lance made sure to make fun of him for it.

"Shut up," Keith growled as Lance took the plated armor off Keith's injured shin. He'd learned a thing or two about medical science in the past few years. Coran had insisted that at least one of them know some degree of it in case of emergency. Lance and Hunk had both volunteered, but, predictably, Hunk had ended his involvement at the first mention of blood. So he was technically the only trained medic in Voltron. Well, 'trained' being a very loose term. He knew enough to keep someone alive until they could reach a healing pod. 

Keith hissed as Lance felt around the injury. He hummed as he came to a conclusion.

"Well?" Keith asked impatiently. Lance looked up.

"Gladiator got you good," he answered with a smirk. "It's pretty bad..." he trailed off, savoring Keith's all-too-serious expression. "For a bruise, anyway."

He cackled as Keith swatted him.

"But seriously, you'll be fine. Put some ice on it later." Lance held his hand out to help his friend up, Keith took it.

"You're up later than usual," commented Keith then, stretching. "You're usually fast asleep by now, right?" 

With a flash of guilt, Lance realized he'd let himself become distracted. Whoops. He shrugged. One night wouldn't ruin everything...right? He could afford to stay up a  _little_ longer.

"So are you," he shot back. "Up late, I mean." They started walking. To where, Lance had no idea.

"You know this isn't late for me," Keith countered. "I've stayed up pretty late before."  
  
Lance made a noncommital noise. "Eh...I would say you're a solid third behind Shiro and Pidge." Keith laughed.

"Fair enough."

They passed an open door, and something made Keith peek in. "Lance, check it out," he whispered.

Lance looked in behind him and snorted. Hunk had the habit of falling asleep in unexpected places. That guy could snooze wherever, whenever. Currently, his bbff (big best friend forever) was sprawled across the floor, alien mechanical parts surrounding him. It looked like he'd been in the middle of tinkering with some tech they'd picked up from a planet a few weeks back. Hunk liked to make himself busy. He said it eased his anxiety. His snores filled the room.

"We should let him be," Lance advised quietly. Keith silently agreed. They closed the door and continued on. It was silent between them for a little bit as they strolled through dozens of identical hallways. That was, until Keith looked at Lance very suddenly, as if he had remembered something important. Lance raised an eyebrow expectantly, although he wasn't sure what he was expecting. "Yeah, Keith?" he prodded. 

"Um-" Keith opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. Quickly, he said, "You should one-on-one me sometime." For some reason he looked dissappointed, but at what, Lance couldn't tell. "I mean," he continued to stutter in that way he did when he was unsure of himself. "We've been out here how long? And I've sparred with Shiro, Pidge, even Hunk one time, and Allura too many times to count, but- never with you. I guess we've been so focused on working on our teamwork to even think about that..." Keith trailed off, clearly embarrassed with himself.

"Sure," Lance answered easily, taking Keith's rare bout of self-doubt in stride. "I'll beat you easily, though. You wouldn't even get close to me."

Keith smiled as they dipped back into familiar territory. "If I have my shield, you can't touch me."

"Oh, you wanna bet?" Lance leaned in closer to Keith, returning his challenging grin. 

"I bet that you won't get a hit on me, and when I close the distance, it's game over. I win."

"Nope," Lance countered. "If you have your sheild, that means we're wearing armor. Jetpacks. I have full mobility. You can't dodge me as well then, and you sure as hell can't guard all your blindspots. It's game over.  _I_ win."

Keith groaned, clearly defeated in this battle of words. Lance had always been a better strategist than him, and they both knew it.

"We'll see who wins on the deck, hotshot," he replied back. Lance smiled at the mention of his favorite nickname. Keith had come up with it a year or so back when they'd been on a solo mission. It'd been particularly tough, and in the end, it'd been Lance's spectacular aim that had gotten them out of there alive. Despite almost dying, Lance remembered that mission with fondness.

Lance thought that Keith probably did too. They stopped in front of a viewport. There was no view today, just endless space. The Castle wasn't anywhere near a system at the moment, which was preferred when they were inbetween missions. That way, if they were attacked, no innocent lives would be at risk, and the attackers would also have nowhere to hide.

"Do you remember," Lance said suddenly, turning from the desolate view to his friend. "Do you remember when we went to Aohuma?"

"Which time?" Keith asked, even though Lance could see he knew which one. He rolled his eyes.

"Don't play dumb with me," he chastised. "Y'know. The time we snuck back there the night we were supposed to leave the system? God, Shiro was so mad..." he chuckled to himself. Keith looked down bashfully.

"That was so stupid," he remarked.

"But fun," Lance added. Keith snorted.

"Yeah," he agreed. "If you count being shot at as fun."

"It was  _your_ fault!" Lance protested with a laugh.

"I wasn't the one who tipped off our location by singing  _Beyonce_ too loud. When I specifically said to be  _stealthy._ "

"Well, they wouldn't have attacked us if you hadn't attacked first, so there."

"They were armed and we were outnumbered!" Keith's voice reached a high pitch, as it often did when he was on defense in their arguments. Lance clapped on a hand on Keith's armored shoulder. 

"Admit you're at fault and let's leave it at that," he suggested, knowing that Keith probably wouldn't. Keith crossed his arms.

"The element of surprise was our only option," he muttered. Lance shook his head good-naturedly. His gaze returned to the blackness outside the window, only illuminated by the blue light of a ship engine outside of their view, and by far-off specks of starlight.

"Anyway," Lance continued, changing the subject slightly. "The reason I bring it up is- I mean, that was so long ago. Two years! I feel so old. Do you ever feel old, Keith?"

"Not really," he deadpanned, leaning with his back against the glass. "I mean, we're almost twenty now. We have plenty of time left. Hopefully." His eyebrows creased together and he frowned. "I'm more worried about dying young than getting old, Lance."

Lance nodded, putting a hand against the window. It was cool to the touch. "That's a distinct possibility," he acknowledged.

"I feel like I've done more in these three years than in the seventeen I was on Earth," appended Keith. "But I don't know if that's good, y'know? Like, we've liberated so many planets from Galra rule.  _That's_ good. But...I've been thinking about all the other stuff. Paladin stuff, sometimes it gets in the way of that. Like I can't do normal things and think about normal things because I'm too busy saving the universe. And I mean, let's be real. I could die at any moment. What if I die without doing the other stuff that I've been putting off? I don't want to die with regrets."

"Other stuff?" Lance questioned quietly.

"Yeah," replied Keith just as softly. "Like my friends, and all the stuff I should eventually...tell you guys. But I keep putting it off because the time's not right, it's never right."

"Do it now," suggested Lance. "I'm not busy. And we're safe. You got stuff you wanna tell me?"

"'Course I do," he answered sulkily. He closed his eyes for a moment. "But I don't- I mean, I can't get myself to say it. I know I should before it's too late, but I keep wussing out." He brought his hands down to his hips and glared at the floor. "I'm scared of what you'll say."

Lance stayed quiet for a moment. It took something big for Keith to be scared. He was one of the bravest people Lance knew, and Keith had confided in Lance for almost everything. There were no secrets between them. He'd let Lance see a lot. Breakdowns, crying, the whole angsty shebang. And for Keith, who was so emotionally closed off, it required a lot of trust on his part. Whatever this was, Keith had to know that Lance wasn't going to do anything horrible.  _I mean, the dude revealed he was part Galra,_ Lance thought.  _It's kind of hard to beat that plot twist._

"You can tell me anything." Lance told Keith decidedly.

His friend let out a breath and smiled faintly. "I knew you'd say that."

Lance waited for Keith to start talking. This was about to get serious.

"Lance-" Keith put a hand through his hair. "I mean we're- you're my best friend. Right? We've literally taken bullets for each other, and in one case freaky druid magic but- Well, I mean, I've told you everything. You know pretty much everything about me. And I know about you, too. I think it's safe to say we're super close, right?" He looked to Lance, and it took him a second to register that Keith was looking for reassurance.

"Right," he agreed slowly. Keith nodded and sucked in a breath.

"You're the reason Voltron didn't fall apart when I was leading, Lance. Do you realize that? You kept the team together, but more importantly, to me anyway, you kept  _me_ together. That was probably the most stressful time in my life, those few weeks and I just-" His voice broke a little. "I never told you how much that all meant to me. And it meant the universe to me, Lance." 

He stared at Keith, mouth open.  _Holy shit._

His friend turned toward him, they were both silent, but Keith's face was a storm of intensity and emotion.

"Dude," Lance finally said weakly, voice wavering. "Bro. Don't get emotional like that without a warning. Ah man..." he rubbed his face with a hand. His eyes were getting a little wet. When did he become such a sap?

"I'm not done," added Keith tentatively. Lance waved wordlessly for him to continue. Who was he to stop someone from giving him seemingly endless heartfelt compliments?

"I can remember the first few weeks we were here," Keith recalled. "We had that party, and Sendak attacked. For the first time, anyway. Not the time where he came back under Lotor. You saved Coran from serious injuries, but you also sacrificed yourself. That was when I realized that you weren't as immature as you seemed. It said a lot about who you were as a person. I mean, you'd barely known Coran, then. Two weeks, tops. I thought about that a lot, and how I maybe wouldn't have done the same thing back then."

"Aw Keith," Lance interrupted with a slightly nervous laugh. "You're embarrassing me." Truth was, Lance was so unused to getting sincere compliments that this many at once was overwhelming him. He wanted Keith to stop, but he also wanted Keith to keep going. This entire situation was absurd, but not like, in a  _bad_ way or anything. Just weird. Lance felt like he knew what all of this was building up to, and he wasn't sure if he was ready for it.

"I guess what I'm trying to say," Keith began again shakily, ignoring what Lance had said, "Was-Is- that I need to stop putting it off, and I just need to tell you. I...I care about you, Lance. A lot." He stood rigidly, eyes glued to his feet.

Lance felt his lungs suddenly deflate, like he'd gotten all the air knocked out of him.  _I care about you_ could be taken a lot of different ways. But it was Keith. Keith didn't just drop  _I care about yous_ to everyone he met. He didn't say all that sappy stuff to a bro. And he definitely didn't get scared of said bro's reaction.

Lance suddenly realized something obvious.

Their reationship had transcended beyond the bounds of common brotherhood long ago. He chose his next words wisely.

"It must've sucked seeing me flirt with all of those aliens."

It worked. Keith choked, which then turned into a laugh. Soon enough, his shoulders were shaking with it, and the tension in the air was gone.

"The worst," Keith rasped through a laugh. "You have the  _worst_ pick-up lines. But they always worked! I never understood that." Lance grinned and ran a hand through his hair.

"It's all in the finger-guns," he answered cockily, throwing some in Keith's direction. Keith groaned, still chuckling. Lance joined him. Somehow, they were sitting next to each other on the floor, below the window. When had that happened?

"So...you would've regretted never telling me?" Lance ventured, after the laughter had subsided. Keith nodded.

"It was never supposed to be a secret. I just held off on telling you because I was scared."

"How-how long have you known?"

Keith thought about it for a moment, face resting on his palm. "Ever since you hit Lotor in the face with your bayard to save my life, I think," he answered.

Lance whistled. "That was pretty long ago."

"Yep."

"It was also pretty funny."

Keith smiled. "Allura was jealous it wasn't her." Lance grinned back.

"Yeah...that's one of my prouder moments."

"I liked the time Pidge decked you when we went looking for the pearl," Keith offered. Lance scoffed.

"You mean the time Pidge kicked  _all_ of our asses," he corrected. "And went after me first because I'm the most dangerous."

Keith clicked his tongue disbelievingly. "Uh-huh." Lance shoved him playfully and muttered an insult that held no ill will. It occured to him that he had completely ignored his normal routine tonight. It was way past his bedtime.

Heh. Bedtime. He felt a little bit like an eight-year-old again, acting against parental authority by staying up late.

Except that he was in space, millions of lightyears away from his parents, who probably thought their son was dead.

Hm. Well that certainly put his mood down a little bit.

"Lance?" Keith's voice pulled him out of his own head, and back into the empty hallway they were sitting in. Keith's face was uncertain. "I don't know if this is polite or whatever but could I ask if-" He made vague hand gestures. "Y'know?"

Lance  _did_ know. He swallowed, looking away for a second. It'd be a dick move to leave Keith guessing, and, knowing Keith like he did, Lance knew that his friend would hyperfocus on the uncertainty of Lance's feelings, and it would keep him off-focus. An off-focus Keith was a Keith who wasn't as good in a fight.

Lance could never endanger his best friend's life like that.

He refused to leave him with a  _"I'll have to think about it,"_ as much as he wanted to. This was too sudden, and not what he expected at all. But he wouldn't obey his gut instinct. Because like it or not, he was Keith's friend and  _dammit,_ that was just not what a friend did. And if Lance prided himself on two things, it was his impeccable marksmanship, and being a damn good pal.

All of this didn't change the fact that Lance had no idea what to say.

He cleared his throat awkwardly. "Sorry," he apologized immediately. "Gimme a tick to figure out kinda, what I wanna say." Keith nodded and turned away, allowing Lance some semblance of privacy.

God, did he like Keith?  _That_ way, anyways? Keith had been a part of Lance's life for going on five years now. For half of that, Keith barely knew who Lance was, and for a quarter of that, they'd kind of despised each other. Lance had never had such a complicated relationship with anyone before. And yeah, he and Keith would pretty much die for each other. But it was the same way with Lance for Pidge, Hunk, and the rest of the team.

So. Why did Keith feel different?

Mentally, Lance ran through all the attributes he knew he found attractive.

 _Pretty eyes._ Check.

 _Nice ass (if said person's species has one.)_ Check.

 _Intelligent._ Check.

 _Brave._ Check.

 _Endures my endless unbearable sense of humor._ Check.

Well. Shit. Keith cleared it all with flying colors, and probably got extra credit for somehow making a mullet work after 1990. Lance felt like his feelings were Voltron, and he was a Galra fighter ship.

In short, he felt like his feelings had just completely and utterly wasted him; most likely with Keith's dumb flaming samurai sword. He opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. What could he possibly say?

"This hallway isn't the ideal location for a confession of undying love and devotion, Keith," He blurted out. Keith let out a breath it looked like he'd been holding.

"It wasn't really planned," he said simply. "I guess I'll just go-" Lance grabbed Keith's elbow before he could get up.

"But I guess I'll have to make do," Lance finished.

Keith's face whipped to face him so fast his hair slapped his cheek.

"Keith," Lance started, his voice embarrassingly high. He cleared his throat and forced himself to talk in a lower tone. "You've been this untouchable guy from day one. You were always doing stuff like flying into asteroid fields and blackholes and cool junk like that. Stupid stuff too, but mostly cool stuff. And, I hate to admit it, I really do, but when we were younger, I idolized you. At the Garrsion, you were this...amazing naturally talented pilot, and I wanted to be like you. You know how many extra hours I've plugged into that dumb simulator? I think the reason I sucked at it with Pidge 'n Hunk was because I was so used to doing everything alone. I was fifteen and stupid, and when you didn't notice my attention-craving ass, I decided to hate you. And then, you dropped out and,  _whew,_ that was a time. Hunk can tell you how pissed I was. Then I don't hear about you for a year, and I start to forget all about that whole mess, and then bam. Literally. You entered my life again with some quiznacking explosions you rigged."

Lance had to stop to catch his breath. "Honestly, I could go on for hours about how complicated all of my feelings about you were and currently are, but if you could just do me a favor and shut me the hell-" Lance could no longer talk.

This was because Keith was kissing him.

Damn. They must be soulmates. How else did he always know what Lance wanted? Keith pulled away.

"Was that okay?" he asked, voice small. "I've...never kissed anyone before."

Lance felt his cheeks start to hurt from all the smiling. "Twenty years old and never been kissed?"

"Too busy saving the damn universe, hotshot."

God, Lance loved that nickname.

He grabbed Keith's face in his hands. They were sweaty, but neither of them really cared. "I'm glad I screwed up my sleep schedule for this," he said, before leaning in for another kiss. It wasn't long before they came up for air again.

"Stop smiling," Keith ordered.

"You first," Lance fired back. "We still on for that one-on-one later?"

"You know it."

"Let's raise the stakes. Winner gets to ask Keith on a date."

"I can't ask myself on a date, Lance."  
  
"I know." Lance rolled his eyes. "It's implying that I'm gonna whoop your ass."

"I know." Keith replied, also rolling his eyes. "I was implying that  _I'm_ gonna whoop  _your_ ass."

Lance scowled. "Shut up and make out with me, Keith."

 


End file.
